John Sauven, Greenpeace's executive director, said: "The decision by the Russian court to extend the remand of the first of the Arctic 30 to another three months imprisonment, without trial, is turning the legal process into a sham.

"If the court applies this extension to all of our activists, they will have done five months without being convicted of anything. The 30 presently being held are neither pirates nor hooligans and it is time prosecuting authorities recognised what has become obvious to the world – that what they're doing bears no resemblance to justice."